The present invention claims the priority of Japanese Patent Application Nos. 10-222302 filed Jul. 22, 1998 and 11-35623 filed Feb. 15, 1999 which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to shampoo compositions for cleaning the head and body, softening the hair, giving a rinsing effect and improving atopic dermatitis (including bath shampoo compositions).
Recently, the presence of a disease called "chemical hypersensitivity" has been reported. This disease manifests itself to involve vegetative disorder, headache, melancholia, nausea, etc. when the total uptake of chemicals exceeds a certain level. Another disease called "sick house syndrome" has also been reported, which is caused by the interior air contaminated with building materials or coatings in newly built or rebuilt houses. These diseases are caused by several tens of thousands or more types of chemicals produced.
Dirt on the skin includes fats, sweat and dead keratin resulting from skin metabolism as well as minute chemicals contained in dust as described above, allergens and chemicals contained in skin detergents or rinses, hair-setting sprays and like daily products. These chemicals deposited on the skin are believed to cause atopic dermatitis. These minute chemicals penetrate the interstices between the epidermal keratin just before exfoliation and the underlying keratin to transcutaneously have an adverse influence on human bodies. Even those who have not developed atopic dermatitis may show conditions thereof when the total uptake of chemicals exceeds a certain level.
Therefore, people of the present generation are required to remove these minute chemicals from the skin.
These minute chemicals entered between keratins can not be removed with surfactants alone. Petroleum surfactants induce denaturation of protein while soaps consisting of fatty acid salts are not preferable for application to affected skin because of their alkalinity. Natural fat-derived detergents such as N-acylated amino acid surfactants or sugar esters do not irritate the skin, but their detergency is low.
Quaternary ammonium surfactants such as dialkyldimethylammonium chloride conventionally used for softening the hair promote skin roughening. Rinse-in-shampoos recently available on the market are dubious in terms of safety.
The present invention proposes a shampoo composition for removing minute chemicals deposited on the skin responsible for atopic dermatitis as described above, and also softening the hair, giving a rinsing effect and controlling dandruff and itch on the scalp.